


Puppy Love

by theartofdreaming



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 06:25:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6742924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartofdreaming/pseuds/theartofdreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Still recovering from her last breakup, Iris bumps into the best distraction possible: a puppy! And the dog owner himself sure is adorable, too...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puppy Love

It was a lovely day out, with the sun shining and the birds chirping cheerfully. Iris and Linda were walking about the park, returning from their lunch break at Jitters and heading back for their workplace, Central City Picture News.

“Oh come on, Iris, what flimsy excuse is it this time?” Linda groaned, flawlessly tossing the empty cup of her coffee to go into the nearest trash can in passing.

“I told you; it's high time for my spring-cleaning this year,” Iris argued, trying to copy her friend's move – and failing: the cup bounced off the edge of the bin, landing in the grass. Iris quickly stepped forward to put her coffee cup into the garbage can before she could earn a dismissive glance from the elderly woman sitting on the bench next to it.

“It's already the first week of June, girl – I think you missed the time frame to do your spring-cleaning,” Linda pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

“Better late than never,” Iris mumbled, not meeting her co-worker's eyes.

“Uh-huh... Well, then it shouldn't hurt you to postpone your cleaning a bit more and instead go to that party with me Friday night?” Both women continued their stroll.

“Thanks, but I'll pass.”

The sports reporter let out a sigh, “Iris, I know that you're still recovering from your break-up with Eddie... But it's been several weeks now! And I'm not asking you to go out and marry the first guy on sight; I just thought we could have a nice girls night out again...”

Before Iris could even try to come up with another excuse, something yellow darted past the two journalists, coming to a halt right in front of Iris's feet. Iris nearly tumbled over it, barely keeping her balance, “what the-?”

The something was a dog. An adorable, little yellow Labrador, that was wiggling it's tail excitedly.

Iris's eyes widened.

“Awww,” she cooed, kneeling down, the puppy jumping around her playfully, “aren't you a cute little fella!”

Being more of a cats-person, Linda rolled her eyes. When Iris encountered a puppy, there was no chance of continuing a previously begun conversation. With Iris still fawning over the dog, giggling as it licked her fingers, Linda looked around for the owner, wondering when she'll get her best friend back (as she was being ignored completely right now, awkwardly standing next to the dog-lover). Finally, her eyes got caught on a figure heading into their direction, leash in hand. Closely examining the person coming closer, a smile stole its way onto Linda's face.

“I think I'll leave you and your lover alone,” she announced to her friend, who was delightedly scratching the lab behind its ears, “I'll see you at work.”

“Har har,” Iris fake-laughed, eyes not leaving the young dog in front of her.

“You are such a cutie” she addressed the puppy, getting a tiny bark and an excited tail wiggle in return. Iris laughed and petted the dog some more until the Labrador lunged forward to give her a sloppy lick on her face, causing Iris to topple on her butt ungracefully.

“Oh, I'm so sorry,” a male voice right behind her said, “Sir Isaac is a bit unruly.”

_**Sir Isaac?**_ Aside from being pretty embarrassed, Iris was now also utterly confused. The dog however, darted past her and towards the man, excitedly jumping up and down his long legs. Iris sat up clumsily, eyes following the Labrador, trailing up the legs and torso of the young man the puppy was currently bouncing around, until her glance finally came to rest on his face. He had light brown hair and green eyes with long eyelashes, wearing an apologetic and nervous look on his face. He bore a ridiculously close resemblance to a puppy himself, Iris thought. In one swift move, the stranger leashed the young dog before holding out a helping hand to Iris who was still sitting on the ground. “I hope he didn't bother you too much...”

Iris took his hand and he quickly hoisted her up (his grip was much stronger than his gangly frame led to believe), “thanks,” she said, a familiar licking of her fingers brought her focus back to his previous question, “and he didn't bother me at all. I love dogs. That,” Iris gestured at the spot of grass she had plopped on earlier, “was just a little ill-balanced act of affection.”

Iris's response was met with a hearty laugh, “yeah, that's kind of Sir Isaac's thing.”

“Sir Isaac?” Iris asked, incredulous.

Sir Isaac's owner turned a deep shade of red, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Um... yeah, that's his name,” he admitted sheepishly, shuffling his feet, “actually, I wanted to call him Newton... - and yeah, that's probably not any better, I know... But my roommate, Cisco, was making fun of my poor choice of a name, saying that I should have left the naming part to him, so he mocked me by calling Newton 'Sir Isaac' instead – and now he only answers to that name.”

The dog let out an enthusiastic woof as if in affirmation, then tugged on his leash, trying to get closer to Iris.

“Sir Isaac Newton, huh? Are you a physicist or something?” Iris asked, reaching out to scratch Sir Isaac behind his ears. The Labrador made a sound of contentment, closing his eyes.

“A forensic scientist, actually. I work at the CCPD.”

“Oh, my Dad works there, too! You might know him... Detective West?” the CSI nodded affirmatively, “oh and I'm Iris, by the way,” Iris added, a little nudge from Sir Isaac reminded her to keep petting him (she had stopped for just a few seconds).

“Barry Allen,” the young man introduced himself, watching the interaction between Iris and his dog with a goofy smile. “I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous... -” Barry's eyes widened comically as he realized that this didn't come out the right way, “I mean like in that he likes you more than me...” he blushed again, fidgeting nervously.

Iris let out a laugh, amused by his endearing awkwardness. “I think I get what you mean,” she assured the forensic scientist, still smiling, then suddenly came to realize that she had completely lost track of time. Mason was probably going mad by now (even more so than normally).

“Oh... I've got to go back to work... I work at Central City Picture News,” the journalist explained, giving Sir Isaac one last pet – was it just her imagination or did the puppy actually kind of pout when she withdrew her hand? She looked up at Barry who wore a similar expression on his face... _**these two were taking the entire dog-and-owner-look-alike-thing to a complete new level, seriously**_...

“Sorry, I have to get going... it was really nice meeting you,” Iris said wistfully, turning around to leave.

“Oh, hey Iris?” The journalist glanced back at Barry who sported a sheepish but also kind of hopeful smile, “Sir Isaac and I take a walk around this park pretty much every day around 1 at noon and then again 7 in the evening... Soo in case you'd like to put your mad dog petting skills to good use, you know where to find us... I'm pretty sure Sir Isaac would be more than happy to see you again... I certainly would be,” his face turned beet-red and he barely mumbled the last words, but Iris heard them perfectly.

“Who knows, maybe I'll be at the park around that time later on,” she grinned, shrugging casually.

Barry beamed at her, “Yeah, who knows.”

**Fin.**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, Cisco made fun of *my* naming skills... I couldn't come up with a cool science-y name for a dog (except for the very obvious "Pavlov" ;) so I just decided that Cisco would tease Barry endlessly about such a lame name...  
> What do you think Barry would name his dog? (Or what would Cisco have come up with?)


End file.
